Senior forward Tyrese Samuel spoke to the media on Tuesday afternoon. Here’s everything Samuel had to say ahead of Florida’s Wednesday matchup with Missouri.
On your experience coming to Florida…
“Most definitely exceeded my expectations for sure. I know when I came here on my visit, I knew it would be a perfect fit. Being here for the last couple of months, everything you could imagine is here. It most definitely exceeded.”
On success leading to NIL opportunities…
“Yeah, most definitely. But I just wanted to come here and make sure I had a good season… that was probably the least of my worries. But for the most part having a good season, obviously more opportunities come around.”
On the four bigs…
“I feel like us together, me, Condon, Micah, and Tommy, I feel like we have a good bond together. Obviously, I’m the oldest one so I kind of teach them here and there. I feel like we are very connected… we have to do the same job, always sharing our insights and like what’s going on in the game.”
On playing a leadership role for Alex and Tommy…
“A lot. I tell them, like sometimes the game might not be going your way, but just kind of slow down, just let the game come to you, don’t try to force it, don’t try to make a home run play. Little things like that, but most importantly, they kind of know what’s going on, they are very good freshman. Sometimes you just need to get slowed down, that’s kind of the main thing.”
On addressing the rebounding…
“Just got to go out there a little more aggressive. I know a lot of teams it’s probably their goal to make sure we don’t get rebounds because that’s one of our strengths. And lately they’ve been doing a really great job of that. Just got to come out more aggressive, more aggressive than we usually do.”
On long rebounds…
“I feel like once the ball gets anywhere in the paint, we usually get those. But the long rebounds, I feel like that’s probably where we are struggling a little bit, because they take a lot of long shots, take a lot of contested shots, so there’s going to be a lot more long rebounds. We just got to carve out our space so we can get those and get those 50-50 balls.”
On the potential of this team…
“Final four. I think one issue we got to fix is closing out the second half. Because first half team we are probably best in the country when it comes to the first half. Once we know how to finish out our games and continue to play hard and aggressive and playing good defense in the second half, I think we can beat anyone.”
On the difference between the Big East and the SEC…
“SEC is super fast paced, super athletic, long wings, very good guards and everything. Big East is just, the physicality is a little bit different. It’s a lot more slower, a little more grinding out the shot clock, here it’s kind of more up and down.”
On Florida’s deep roster…
“It’s great. It just shows that teams can’t relax. All 15 of us, including the walk ons, we are a very deep team. We all help each other really well; we complement each other really well. And we are a really big team, so teams always have to leave big guys out there, you can’t just go small ball against us. I feel like that our length, we are able to shoot, pass, and make plays under pressure. I feel like that’s one of our benefits with these team.”
On his comfortability putting the ball on the floor and driving to the rim…
“Yeah, a lot more confident. As a freshman, you don’t want to make too much mistakes, the games a little more faster, you always want to try to make the right play… Just kind of going out there with confidence and believing all the time you put in to make those plays.”
How does Todd Golden compare to other coaches regarding motivation…
“He’s probably one of the best at it. He’s very positive, very positive. He always comes with a good energy, just tells you to be a monster out there, just play your game and everything else will fall into place.”
On what it would in mean to get a win in the NCAA Tournament…
“It would mean everything. I think our team is good enough to make a deep run to the final four, I think we are a final four team. Just with our length, our size, and our depth. It would mean everything to be honest, I think it would mean everything to this program, especially to all our players as well.”